June 28, 2014

As Addis Admass newspaper writes quoting sources, twenty ORTO (Oromia Radio and Television Organization) journalists are banned from work for the alleged “Narrow minded political attitude” in connection with the assessment session it had on the issue of the Addis Ababa integrated master plan.

It is remembered that a discussion was held in April, 2014 at the Adama city on the topic of the Addis Ababa integrated master plan where the region’s politicians, journalists and higher officials participated. The discussion and assessment sessions were also conducted following the region wide violence in protest to the integrated master plan.

As sources told the newspaper, lots of journalists were expressing their idea and concern on the integrated master plan at the April’s discussion session and during the two-months long training given to the journalists.

Addis Admass writes that twenty ORTO journalists are prohibited from entering into their office on Wednesday and the journalists told the newspaper that expressing their idea on the training sessions must have been the reason behind their ban from work.

June 26, 2014

With the African continent home to the majority of the world’s fastest-growing economies, urban consumer markets and a wealth of natural resources, it’s perhaps not surprising that some of the world’s largest corporations, from Monsanto to Unilever, are rushing to get a slice of the action.

The Berlin Conference (1884-1885) was a landmark moment in the western colonization of the African continent

World Development Movement (WDM) has produced a new series of infographics depicting the parallels between European colonialism and the encroachment of multinational corporations on the African continent. In this series of three weekly articles, WDM and This Is Africa explore the dynamics behind this modern-day game of thrones.

This scramble bears a striking resemblance to the nineteenth century colonial takeover of the African continent, which saw only Ethiopia and Liberia escape European control. Now as then, the draw is access to Africa’s rich natural resources and an abundant labour force that can be put to work generating products to feed the insatiable appetite of western consumer markets.

Now a new series of interactive infographics produced by UK-based global justice campaigners the World Development Movement shows how stark these parallels are. The first, released this week, shows a comparison between the African empires controlled by colonial powers Britain, France, Belgium and Portugal with the corporate empires being supported by an initiative called the New Alliance for Food Security and Nutrition.

Ethiopia has failed to escape this new process of corporate colonisation

The New Alliance for Food Security and Nutrition was launched by the G8 in 2012, and sees the governments of the African countries involved being pushed to reform their land, seed and trade laws to benefit multinational companies, often at the expense of the small-scale farmers who currently feed at least 70 per cent of the African population. Since then the scheme has expanded to include other rich country donors including Belgium, Spain and South Korea. Currently, ten African countries are involved: Benin, Burkina Faso, Côte d’Ivoire, Ghana, Malawi, Mozambique, Nigeria, Senegal and Tanzania – plus Ethiopia, which has failed to escape this new process of corporate colonisation.

Spurred on by the reforms African governments are making, global companies are making major expansion plans. One group set to benefit most are multinational seed and agrochemical corporations, such as Monsanto, Sygenta and Yara, the world’s largest fertiliser company, as the infographic shows.

Privatising African seed heritage

Reforms being made by the African countries involved in the New Alliance will restrict farmers’ abilities to breed and exchange seeds suited to their local environment, and instead push producers to purchase from commercial seed companies. While not all these companies are based overseas, the top three players (Monsanto, Syngenta and DuPont) already control over half of the commercial seed market globally, and have a track record of buying up their smaller rivals. Between 1996 and 2008, the biggest seed companies have acquired or invested in more than 200 other companies.

With millions of farmers, most of whom use seed bred and saved by themselves or other local farmers rather than from commercial seed companies, it’s hardly surprising that companies like Monsanto and are seeing major opportunities for growth. But in practise, the new laws being demanded by the New Alliance won’t just push farmers to buy from these companies, they will also enable the corporations to prevent others from reproducing seed varieties they have bred, even if these are based on centuries of expert breeding by African farmers – effectively facilitating the privatisation of African seed heritage.

Getting farmers hooked

Similarly, efforts to increase sales of artificial fertilisers and pesticides look set to benefit multinational corporations over the farmers they are supposed to help. In particular, adopting artificial fertilisers puts farmers at risk of getting into debt because they degrade the soil and so require continued use to maintain production. An estimated 250,000 Indian farmers have committed suicide since 1995 as a result of getting into debt from purchasing agrochemicals.

In addition, the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) has estimated that the cost of pesticide poisonings in sub-Saharan Africa now exceeds the total overseas development aid given to the region for basic health services (excluding HIV/AIDS).

As well as promoting the sale of imported fertilisers and pesticides, fertiliser giant Yara is planning to build a major production facility in sub-Saharan Africa, requiring massive quantities of energy – despite the fact that 70 per cent of people in the region still lack access to electricity.

Winners and losers

While these developments look set to be bad news for most of the continent’s farmers, not everyone will lose out. In general, the benefits will accrue to the best off – larger-scale and more affluent farmers and businesses, and the multinationals themselves.

“Their economies of scale make it difficult if not impossible for local businesses to compete”

But overall the approach represented by the New Alliance and similar schemes is likely to short-change the countries involved. Many of the companies involved in schemes like the New Alliance, including SABMiller and Vodafone, are well-known tax dodgers. While their activities may generate more economic activity, the benefits are likely to flow to wealthy western shareholders, not the public service budgets of the African countries in which they operate. Meanwhile, their economies of scale make it difficult if not impossible for local businesses to compete.

Fighting back

The good news is that, as in the struggles for independence, Africans are not taking this corporate colonialism lying down. Last year over one hundred farmers groups and civil society organisations issued a statement exposing schemes like the New Alliance for what they are: “a new wave of colonialism”. Through the Alliance for Food Sovereignty in Africa (AFSA), many of these groups are both fighting the corporate-dominated model of agriculture currently being promoted and showing how alternatives are both viable and desirable. Like those who fought the European colonisation, their demand is for sovereignty. This time it’s food sovereignty – policies that empower rather than undermine the small-scale food producers who feed the majority of people using a minority of the available land, water and energy.

Want to support them? Check out AFSA’s website to see if you could support one of their members, and demand the UK government – or your own – withdraws its support for the New Alliance.

Representatives of some of Ethiopia’s biggest aid donors have announced that they will send a team to the southwest of the country to investigate persistent reports of human rights abuses amongst the tribes living there.

The dam, which is nearing completion, will have a serious impact on the livelihoods of 500,000 tribal people, including those living around Kenya’s Lake Turkana.

It is also projected to have catastrophic environmental consequences for the region, which is home to renowned UNESCO World Heritage sites on both sides of the border.

Survival and other NGOs have repeatedly denounced the eviction of hundreds of Bodi and Kwegu and continue to receive reports that people are being intimidated into leaving their lands for resettlement camps.

Daasanach are being forced off their land to make way for infrastructure development such as this giant pump at Omorate, which will facilitate irrigation of the plantations.

The Ethiopian government has not sought or obtained the indigenous peoples’ free, prior and informed consent to move from their lands, in breach of the guidelines for resettlement drawn up by the Development Assistance Group (DAG), a consortium of the largest donors to Ethiopia, including the US, the UK, Germany and the World Bank.

DAG provides significant financial assistance to the local administration responsible for the forced evictions.

DAG has decided to return to the Lower Omo later this year to investigate the situation, even though the evictions continue regardless of past donor visits, the findings of which have often not been published.

Following a lawsuit brought by Friends of Lake Turkana, the Kenyan courts have ruled that the Kenyan government must release all information about the deals it has made with Ethiopia about buying electricity generated by the Gibe III dam.

Earlier this year, a UNESCO report recommended that Lake Turkana be inscribed on the List of World Heritage in Danger.

Residents of Fetche town to demonstrate to request an end to 10 months long power cut

Residents of Fetche town have asked a permission from the town’s administration to have a demonstration in an effort to request an end to the 10 months long power cut. The residents have asked to have a demonstration on Monday June 23, 2014.

About twenty five representatives of the town’s residents mostly from various religious leaders of the town have also gone to the town’s Electric power corporation office to express their resentment on these 10 months long power cut. As the representatives told the reporter the town’s residents have all gone to all the offices till the main office in Addis for complain where they couldn’t get an answer for their plight.

An officer of the Fetche town’s electric power corporation office told the representatives that one representative was enough and that he will let them know the answer for their complaint.

The Ethiopian government has at their disposal a formidable collection of surveillance technologies, and can intrusively monitor writers and activists at home and abroad. In late April the governmentarrested six independent bloggers and a journalist. More than 50 days later they are still being held in custody, and yet no formal charges have been filed. In March Human Rights Watch published a lengthy and detailed report warning that surveillance in Ethiopia could get even worse if the government gains the human capacity necessary to fully leverage the available technologies.

One of the most invasive and potentially life-threatening things that can happen to an Ethiopianblogger, journalist, activist or dissident is to unwittingly download malware that allows the government to monitor keystrokes and passwords, to remotely turn on a computer’s microphone or camera and start recording, and to extract data from the hard drive. The simplest step Ethiopians can take to protect themselves is to limit the number of documents they download from the Internet. One way to do this is by opening documents as Google Docs.

Until recently, however, Google Docs did not support the Ethiopian language Amharic. Now that they do (and it seems a simple and easy thing to add), Ethiopians have a powerful tool with which to protect themselves from unlawful and intrusive government surveillance.

The Electronic Frontier Foundation has an excellent post explaining how to enable Amharic in Google products, and why Ethiopians should use it (namely, if they are worried about their own government’s surveillance but not concerned that Google will supply their data to US court orders).

I have previously written for techPresident about Angolan investigative journalist Rafael Marques, who discovered intrusive malware on his computer with help from hacker and activist Jacob Appelbaum. Months after the discovery Marques was arrested and beaten.

One of the most relevant points Marques makes is that the malware doesn’t need to be sophisticated because the authorities know or anticipate that he does not have the resources to buy a new, clean computer and to thoroughly protect it.

Is the Google Doc trick infallible? Almost certainly not, but it is a free, easy way for Ethiopians to protect themselves. Think of it like wearing a seatbelt in cyberspace.

Personal Democracy Media is grateful to the Omidyar Network and the UN Foundation for their generous support of techPresident’s WeGov section

A court has directed the police to finalize its investigations and file charges against 6 members of a blogging community ‘Zone 9′, as well 3 journalists, who have been in custody for about 58 days

Defense attorney, Amha Mekonnen, told journalists after the hearing at the Arada First Instance Court last week, that the charges will be filed during the group’s next hearing on July 13th.

Only 3 members of ‘Zone 9′ (Atnaf Barhane, Natnail Feleke and Zelalam Kibret) and the 3 journalists (Tesfalem Wadyes, Asmanew Hailegiorgis and Edom Kassaye) appeared in court last week. Reports indicate that the other 3 members of ‘Zone 9′ will appear in court on June 28th. No reasons have been provided to explain why the trials of the bloggers have been separated.

The police, who have requested that the commentators are held under a ‘no-bail’ condition, have repeatedly requested more time from the court to gather evidence to support their allegations against the group.

Shortly after their incarceration, officials explained that the group were taken into custody after being accused of conniving with foreign organizations illegally posing as human rights activists and collecting bribes to incite division and destabilise the country via social media.

But, ‘Zone 9′ describe themselves as “an informal group of young Ethiopian bloggers working together to create an alternative independent narration of the socio-political conditions in Ethiopia.”

The Ethiopian government has been accused of suffocating free speech and criticisms of its decisions. The country has one of the worst ratings worldwide for press freedom. Reports indicate that several commentators are currently languishing in deplorable detention centers across the country for simply expressing a dissenting opinion. The government has also been accused of tracking internet usage and many websites are reportedly blocked from ordinary visitors in the country.

Local sources say the social media accounts of the incarcerated ‘Zone 9′ bloggers have since been short down. There are unconfirmed reports that members of the group attempted to reach some of their colleague through Google mail while in prison. Reports indicate that the group had ceased their activism for some months prior to their arrest; allegedly due to harassments, threats and concerns of being under the surveillance of the government.

While the latest development in this case has invariably inspired more calls for the release of the group, it has also brought relief to some observers.

Pundits say there had been concerns that the authorities would keep the group in detention for a prolonged period without bringing any charges against them.

Ethiopia’s Anti-Terrorism Act 2009, which allegedly permits the authorities to keep people in detention without charges for a long time, has also been criticized for being ambiguous.

June 18, 2014

Ethiopia ranks second poorest country in the world – Oxford University Study

imensional Poverty Index (MPI), published by Oxford University, Ethiopia ranks the second poorest country in the world just ahead of Niger. The study is based on analysis of acute poverty in 108 developing countries around the world. Despite making progress at reducing the percentage of destitute people, Ethiopia is still home to more than 76 million poor people, the fifth largest number in the world after India, China, Bangladesh and Pakistan. India has the world’s largest number of poor people at more than 647 million.

87.3% of Ethiopians are classified as MPI poor, while 58.1% are considered destitute. A person is identified as multidimensionally poor (or ‘MPI poor’) if they are deprived in at least one third of the weighted MPI indicators. The destitute are deprived in at least one-third of the same weighted indicators, The Global MPI uses 10 indicators to measure poverty in three dimensions: education, health and living standards.

In rural Ethiopia 96.3% are poor while in the urban area the percentage of poverty is 46.4%. Comparing the poverty rate by regions, Somali region has the highest poverty rate at 93% followed by Oromiya (91.2%) and Afar (90.9%). Amhara region has 90.1% poverty rate while Tigray has 85.4%.

Addis Ababa has the smallest percentage of poverty at 20% followed by Dire Dawa at 54.9% and Harar (57.9%).

Under the brutal rule of the TPLF, courts are key instruments of repression. This is not an allegation. It is rather a well-documented and substantiated fact widely known across the world. One of the worst crimes the TPLF has committed in the last two decades is using fake laws, Kangaroo courts, unjustly ruthless “prosecutors” and “judges” to silence and torment anyone opposed to its criminal tyranny.
“Prosecutors” and “lawyers” in the league of Shimelis Kemal have committed heinous crimes under the guise of nonexistent due process. Among other things, Shimelis is the author of the so-called anti-terrorism proclamation and the charities and societies law. Tewodros Beharu, who was recruited as a student OPDO operative at college, is one of those who were willingly followed the bloody footsteps of TPLF’s hacks like Shimelis.

Journalists, activists and political dissidents that have survived torture chambers, killing sprees and all sorts of inhumane treatment are mostly forced to go through the Kangaroo court system even if the whole process is a sham designed to give repression a semblance of justice. The system deliberately dispenses injustice by imposing the will of the TPLF under the guise of justice.

The fake and unjust “lawyers” like Tewodros Beharu, Berhanu Wondimagegn, Zeresenay Misganaw and Berihun Teklebirhan were given tasks to persecute journalists and activists using the anti-terrorism law. In the service of their TPLF paymasters, the hack lawyers have fabricated countless treason and terrorism charges against innocent people whose only crime was exposing and challenging the corruption and tyranny of the TPLF.

Fake prosecutor Tewodros Beharu is no exception. He willingly and passionately played a key role in sending Eskinder Nega, Andualem Aragie, Reeyot Alemu, Nathnael Mekonnen, Bekele Gerba, Olbana Lelisa, the Muslim leaders and so many political prisoners to the hellish TPLF jails. This unjust man is now living in Silver Spring, Maryland. While his victims are suffering in harsh jails, he appears to go to bed without any remorse and regrets.
After shattering the dreams of so many patriots condemned to suffer nightmares just for the love of their people and country, he is pursuing “happiness” and the American dream. It appears that the former TPLF tormentor and persecutor has sought asylum under false pretence that he was persecuted and tortured. To make matters worse, he rejected numerous requests to explain about the way he and his partners in crime were able to convict innocent people with serious terrorism offences and crimes they have never committed. He even tried to blame it all on Shimelis Kemal despite the key roles he played in the whole drama.

Whatever the justification, Tewdoros knows the fact that political prisoners deemed to be threats to the TPLF are always guilty, even before they are pronounced guilty as charged by opportunistic Kangaroo court judges and prosecutors like himself hired to do the dirty job. He is also aware of the fact that the “terrorists” he convicted faced concocted and fictitious charges without the need to present any shred of evidence. They have been denied a fair trial and the basic right to challenge false accusations to prove their innocence.

The worst and most outrageous legal drama unfolded in the aftermath of the 2005 elections. The landslide election victory the opposition had pulled off triggered Meles Zenawi’s panic attacks. Over 193 civilians including minors were mowed down by the brutal Agazi brigade and the federal police. Then opposition party leaders, journalists and civil society leaders were detained and charged with genocide, outrage against the constitution and treason, charges authored by Shimelis Kemal and his handlers.

Former publisher and journalist Serkalem Fasil and her son Nafkot Eskinder, who was born in jail in the wake of the 2005 election turmoils, were forced to flee Ethiopia almost a year ago. Her husband , the fiery award-winning journalist Eskinder Nega, was convicted of trumped-up “terrorism” offenses. He was condemned to 18 years in jail. The chief prosecutor in this and other high profile anti-terrorism charges to inflict maximum harm and pain was none other than Tewodros Beharu.

Following Eskinder’s terrorism conviction, their two houses and a car were confiscated. Adding insult to injury, TPLF was very eager to make sure that not only Eskinder but his family suffer the injustice. After losing everything they have, it was a hard and heartbreaking decision for Serkalem to leave her husband behind. But upon his insistence, she had no choice but to go into exile, at least to protect their child from the unjustly tormenting and painful experience.

A couple of weeks later, Tewodros Beharu, along with his wife Meron Girma, left Ethiopia dreaming a better life in the United States. Unlike the majority of Ethiopian exiles that flee persecution, torture, killings and discrimination, the former public prosecutor left behind the shattered dreams of so many political prisoners and their families.

In a reversal of fortune, Tewodros Beharu has ended up among the terrorists he falsely accused and convicted. This beggars the question how the persecuted and the persecutors can coexisted in the land of freedom where the rule of law is supreme. When victims and tormentors face off, the “dreamer “in the pursuit of happiness may be too sad to face truth, justice and reality….

As Malcolm X once said, “I’m for truth, no matter who tells it. I’m for justice, no matter who it’s for or against.” Not only Tewodros but all the false accusers and judges in Ethiopia should realize the fact that those of us they convicted with all sorts of crimes and terrorism are not criminals and terrorists but law-abiding citizens that dare to speak truth to power.

Tormenting and attacking innocent people with false accusations and fake laws is nothing but terrorism. Those who falsely accuse and prosecute others are conscious criminals. They cannot invoke ignorance or arrogance as a defense.

Let the truth speak for itself. The truth never lies. It is always powerful and irrefutable.

Police announced that it seized more than 90 000 counterfeit hundred birr notes in the Laelay Adiyabo woreda of the Tigray region’s north western zone. The police have also put into custody two suspects who have tried to escape with the huge amount of grain that they have bought with the counterfeit money.

As the woreda’s police commander Daniel Assegede told ENA the suspects were put into custody when they were trying to escape after they bought 160 quintals of sorghum with eighty two thousand counterfeit birr notes from the local farmers.

The suspects are apprehended with the help of the community and when they caught more than eight thousand counterfeit hundred birr notes are found with them.

The demonstrators have aired various slogans in the demonstration. General Secretary of the party, Ato Gebru Gebremariam, in his speech at the demonstration asked the government to set a fair election system in the country by securing for citizens a free, legal and democratically sound institution. He has also asked for all citizens to be benefitted from the country’s developmental benefits.

Ato Gebru has also said that the party is preparing to announce its manifesto which is believed to set solutions to the country’s problems.